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Severe weather battered the central Plains and mid-South late Sunday, killing at least 16 people in Arkansas, one in Oklahoma and one in Iowa. Some of the worst damage was north of Little Rock, Arkansas, where reported tornadoes devastated towns. "There's a few buildings partially standing, but the amount of damage is tremendous," Mayor James Firestone said Sunday. "There's gas lines spewing. Of course, power lines down. Houses are just a pile of brick.“ Authorities shut down a section of a nearby Interstate after a tornado "as much as a half-mile wide" roared through the area. The estimated winds from the storm were 130 to 150 mph. President Barack Obama offered his condolences to storm victims.
In Other News • The players in the National Basketball Association spoke out Sunday about racist comments attributed to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The Clippers players staged a silent protest. As they warmed up for an NBA playoff game, the players removed their warmup shirts bearing team logos to reveal red T-shirts worn inside out, with the logos hidden. They finished warming up, removed the red shirts and played the game wearing their regular uniforms. The National Basketball Players Association demanded Sterling be barred from all playoff games this season. The players also want an accounting of past accusations of racism against Sterling; an explanation of what kind of discipline might be issued; assurance that the league commissioner will work with the association; and assurance the investigation will be conducted swiftly. The controversy continued throughout the weekend when the website Deadspin released an additional audio recording of a conversation that purports to be Sterling talking with girlfriend V. Stiviano earlier this month. Neither Deadspin nor TMZ, which released a similar recording Saturday, said where they got the recordings. Stiviano's lawyer's office said Sunday that she didn't release the recordings but that they're legitimate. The 15-minute Deadspin recording purports to be Sterling talking with Stiviano about her Instagram photo feed. The photos include images of her with African-Americans, including NBA great Earvin "Magic" Johnson. f authentic, the remarks seem to reflect Sterling's embarrassment and frustration with Stiviano over her associating with African-Americans at Clippers games and for posting such pictures on her Instagram account. • An Egyptian court has recommended the death penalty for the leader of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters. The charges are related to violent riots in the central Egyptian city of Minya in August, including the murder of a police officer. The case has been referred to the nation's grand mufti, Egypt's highest religious authority, for review. • Though the Obama administration has been campaigning for prison reform for some time, it has recently begun to take concrete steps to alleviate overcrowded federal prisons that are flooded with non-violent offenders. The Justice Department announced changes to its clemency criteria this week, a move that will likely lead to a wave of sentence commutation requests being sent to President Barack Obama by thousands of prisoners who've been convicted of non-violent drug crimes. The clemency changes would be open to prisoners who have met a set of specific conditions: they must be low-level, non-violent offenders without a significant criminal history and must be serving a federal sentence that would likely be shorter if they were convicted today. They must have served at least 10 years of their sentence and have demonstrated good conduct in prison, with no history of violence before or during their prison term. • John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized Sunday by Pope Francis in an unprecedented ceremony witnessed by huge crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
